


Here in My Dream

by Serendipity_246



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (at least not yet), Dreams, No Romance, One Shot, Outer Space, Science Fiction, might add more later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-03 23:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14007297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serendipity_246/pseuds/Serendipity_246
Summary: Dr. Johnny Seo, working for the Neo Oneiro Institute, studies dreams. Today he interviews a patient known only as Ten."He had no idea what was going on. It seemed impossible that he would ever understand it.But then again, everything was possible in a dream"





	Here in My Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a short story for my English class. This is a one shot for now, but I might expand on it later depending on the reception it gets. Hope you enjoy!

The cassette recorder clicked on.

“April 9th, year 2416. Interviewing Patient Ten. Okay, Ten, let’s begin. What did you dream about last night?” Dr. Johnny Seo, the head researcher at the Neo Oneiro Institute, folded his hands together on the table. Ten, the patient he was observing, sat across from him.

“Remind me why exactly we’re doing this?” Ten scowled.

“Ten, we’ve been over this”, Johnny said as kindly as he could. “My team and I study dreams, why people dream what they do. We think they’re connected to lost memories, that people dream about past experiences they have forgotten while they’re conscious. You and the rest of the patients have memory loss, so we analyze your dreams to try and recover your lost memories. Understand? Now, tell me what you dreamed about”.

Ten sighed. “It’s pretty crazy. I don’t know if I should tell you”.

“To maintain the integrity of the study, it’s important that you’re totally honest with me”. Johnny smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry if it seems strange. Just tell me about your dream”.

“Alright. I dreamed...I dreamed I was on Earth”.

“Earth, huh? I’m curious why you think so”.

“You’re gonna think I’m insane, but...it’s because I remembered it. I’ve been there before”.

Johnny couldn’t resist letting out a snort. It was impossible. No one had been to Earth in centuries. Humanity had either settled on other planets, or lived on orbiting space vessels. The Neo Oneiro Institute was on such a vessel.

Ten banged his fist on the table. “Don’t you scoff at me, Johnny! You asked me what I dreamed about!”

“Don’t call me Johnny. It’s Dr. Seo to you. But I apologize. I was just surprised. Continue”.

Ten settled back into his seat. “Okay, so I was on Earth. The sky was blue, and there were plants. Real living plants growing out of the ground! It was pretty cool”.

“So you were somewhere that appeared to be Earth. What did you do there?”

“Well, I saw a house. Or at least, the wreckage of one. It had been completely destroyed, there was wood and debris everywhere. I was just kind of standing there, watching it. And then, next to the house, I saw a piano”.

“A...what?”

Ten thought for a moment, his brow furrowed. “Um...a piano. Musical instrument. Black and white keys, you press them and they play notes. Makes music”.

“Piano, huh? That’s interesting, I’ve never heard of such a thing”. Johnny made a note to look into it later.

“So I saw the piano, but it’s not a normal piano. There’s a bunch of computers and wires on top of it and surrounding it. I went over, and pressed one of the keys. The piano was really out of tune, it kind of startled me. And then...” Ten trailed off for a moment, thinking. Johnny waited for him to continue.

“A strong wind began to blow all around me”, Ten spoke again. “I could hear it roaring in my ears. I was really scared”.

“Then what happened?”

“Nothing. That’s it. Everything went black, and then I woke up”.

“Hmm...fascinating”, Johnny said. “I wonder how exactly you could have dreamed about Earth if you’ve never been there before? You are aware that such a thing is impossible”.

“I already told you, I have been to Earth. A long time ago. I don’t remember much though”.

“Sure you have”.

“I’m telling you the truth!”

Johnny didn’t answer. Instead he typed a couple of notes on his screen tablet.

“Let me ask you something”, Ten leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “You think that dreams are caused by forgotten memories. I had a dream about Earth. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that I dreamed about it because I had memories of it, right?”

Johnny hesitated. Ten’s psychological evaluation had shown that apart from some serious memory loss, Ten was of sound mind. Johnny didn’t think Ten was lying, or even that he was insane. So was it possible that in Ten’s lost past he had lived on Earth? Johnny had to admit the idea both intrigued and terrified him.

He kept all that to himself, however. “That will be all for today, Ten”, he said instead. “Thank you for your cooperation”. He clicked off the cassette recorder.

Ten leapt out of his seat. “Hey wait a minute! You don’t believe me, do you? Why not?!”

Johnny collected his things and turned to exit.

“Wait! You can’t just leave me here!” Ten tried to bolt for the door, but the shackles attached to his wrists and ankles prevented him from moving very far. “Let me go! I’m not crazy!”

Johnny shut the door behind him, feeling a wave of guilt as he ignored Ten’s screams. He walked down the hall, passing a row of cells like the one he had just left Ten in. Normally, he would interview the other patients himself but after what Ten had told him... The other patients could wait. He decided to go to the imaging lab.

In addition to interviewing the patients and having them verbally recount their dreams each night, Johnny and his team also filmed each patient as they slept. With wires attached to their bodies, each patient wore a brainwave scanner that translated their brainwaves into images. In essence, Johnny and his team had films of all the dreams as well as the verbal recollections from the patients. Johnny and his team had found from their research that many factors influenced the subject of the dreams, but a major influence was past experiences. It was impossible to dream about a place you had never visited with the clarity that Ten had described.

Johnny wanted to watch the film of Ten’s dream. If it matched Ten’s description, it could only mean one thing. Ten had, in fact, been to Earth and had real memories of the planet. That was impossible. It simply couldn’t be true. But if it was...Johnny didn’t dare to imagine what that could mean. In any case, watching the film would satisfy his questions, so off to the lab he went.

The films were kept on slides in a filing cabinet, organized by date and by patient. Johnny opened Ten’s drawer and saw the most recent file, dated April 8/9th 2416, had a slide in it. Johnny placed the slide into the projector.

The first thing he noticed was the vivid colors. Normally dreams were in muted tones or even black and white. Not so with Ten’s dream. The sky was the most electric blue he had ever seen. His eyes widened when he saw pink flowers growing out of the ground. The ground-it was not like the synthetic, artificial flooring of the Institute, or the red rock of Mars that Johnny had grown up with. It was brown dirt.

Ten was telling the truth. This was Earth.

Johnny’s pulse raced as he watched the rest of the dream. Everything was as Ten described- the wreckage, the strange instrument called a piano, the wind. It was all true. The film abruptly went black, signalling the end of the dream.

Johnny removed the slide and powered off the projector.

How could this be? The last time humans had lived on Earth was 2066- almost 400 years ago!

Johnny slipped the film into his pocket, instead of returning it to the file cabinet. Still clutching the cassette recorder, he raced out of the imaging lab and towards Ten’s cell to talk to him again. He realized that he, Dr. Johnny Seo, had stumbled onto something much bigger than himself. Bigger than the goal of his study, even. And Ten was the key to all of it.

He had no idea what was going on. It seemed impossible that he would ever understand it.

But then again, everything was possible in a dream.


End file.
